You Said Forever
by tempus terere
Summary: The not really heart wrenching almost ballad of Paul and Dawn's love. Or something. — DawnPaul
1. Chapter 1

**Title: **You Said Forever**  
Warnings:** The main genre is humour/romance, so the characters are slightly exaggerated. Also, I have seen Reggie in only one episode so far, thus he just might be completely OOC. You have been warned.**  
Disclaimer:** Not mine.**  
Notes:** This chapter is more like a drabble than anything else, but please bear with it. They'll get longer as the story progresses (although not all that much, sorry).**  
Special thanks to:** Samia-Chan for being awesome and turning out to be my muse (?).

"Hey, Paul, I just realised something," Dawn informed him one day, after he'd just beaten Ash in yet another battle. "You're actually kind of handsome. You know, in a weird, broody sort of way."

Paul stared.

"You would look even better," she went on, "If you smiled more, though. It's such a waste you never do."

And stared some more. "Who're you again?"

As Dawn fumed upon this with flaring, righteous anger, Ash's and Brock's brains simultaneously began suffering from several neural implosions. Paul continued to stare, before promptly telling the group they were the most pathetic nuisances he had ever had the misfortune of meeting, and then left them by themselves.


	2. Chapter 2

"What are you doing there, idiot girl?" he asked her, two months later, standing at the edge of a cliff which she was hanging on, barely. Unsurprisingly, he was dead serious.

"What does it look like, _maggot boy_? I'm about to fall into my untimely death, so move your extremely attractive butt and save me already!"

Paul responded to this by ignoring her and turning on his heel to go away. Dawn instantly started wailing.

"YOU FIEND," she cried. "YOU HEARTLESS JERKWAD. LETTING A YOUNG GIRL JUST DIE LIKE THIS—HOW CAN YOU EVEN LIVE WITH YOURSELF—"

She was cut off by Paul, who had heaved a very dramatic groan and was now proceeding to summon Torterra. Reluctantly, he ordered the plant-type to use Vine Whip and pull her back to the ground. Dawn found he acted suspiciously indifferent and unwilling as he did so, but decided to kindly let it go, since he had saved her, after all.

"Thanks a lot, Torterra," she breathed out, as soon as his ranks had put her down, and smiled at her saviour gratefully. The pokémon growled throatily, satisfied with his work. "You, too, Paul," she then said, as the addressed boy called Torterra back into his pokéball. "I begin to believe you're not as badass as you give yourself, which is kind of worrisome, but, yeah, anyway, thank you."

Instead of answering, he settled on glaring at her.

"If only you smiled more …"

Predictably, Paul said nothing and simply strode away, his face displaying an interesting mix between disgust and imminent murder.


	3. Chapter 3

Pointedly one year later, at 10 o'clock in the morning, Dawn stood on Paul's doorstep, twice as thrilled as she should have been.

He slammed the door in her face.

Yet, persistent as she was, naturally, she immediately tried it again. This time it was Reggie who opened. Somewhere behind him in the shadows, she could make out Paul rubbing the back of his head and muttering something what sounded like satanic curses.

"Oh, hey, Dawn! It's you," Reggie greeted friendly, nonchalantly ignoring Paul's angry snarls of "Make her leave, make her leave!" "What a _pleasant_ surprise! Do come in."

She did, happily so, beaming all over the face.

* * *

"So," Reggie said, with an all knowing smile. "Why this sudden visit?"

Dawn squirmed uncomfortably in her seat on the couch and avoided to look at him.

Paul was not joining them, for he had (after she'd been let in) quickly withdrawn to his room and justified this by explaining to them that they were too pathetic to be around.

"Oh, you know," she laughed and hoped it wasn't as sheepish as it felt. "I just needed a change of scenery."

"Bored at home?"

"Pretty much."

"Well, then, why don't you go out and let Paul show you around?"

Neither Dawn nor Paul were particularly frond of this proposal. Paul especially wasn't and obviously deemed it necessary to throw a temper tantrum. He still ended up going, because said brother had kicked him out—without any keys—and threatened to make him sleep outside.

It wasn't really a surprise that he had to, anyway. (As punishment for being generally unpleasant.)

Dawn stayed at the brothers' house for two whole weeks, having more fun than she had in months. At the beginning of the second week, Paul, as well, astoundingly began to act like he didn't _completely_ loathe her like burning or the time he spent with her, which she thought must testify to something. And it made her believe in returning (even though he permanently insisted she should just go home).

**Short explanation:** As the 'pointedly one year later' already implied, Dawn has now stopped travelling with Ash & co. She is at home and incredibly bored and, due to several circumstances that will be revealed in the next chapters, can't go too far away. And she's (still) too scared of journeying without company. Hope that helped.


	4. Chapter 4

"I visited Paul in Veilstone," Dawn said casually, two weeks later. She was talking to Ash on the phone, who was now apparently cued by her last phrase to start choking on air.

"Are you OK?" she enquired concernedly, as he began to look more and more like he was going to suffocate. From behind someone passed him a glass with water, which he emptied in the blink of an eye.

"No, I'm fine, thanks," he then smiled brightly. "I was just a bit surprised."

"Uh-huh," Misty said apathetically, taking the glass. "That totally explains your, by the way, completely overdramatic reaction."

"Shut up."

"Why should I?"

"Because I, the Chosen One, said so."

"Keep on dreaming, Ketchum," she said, waved Dawn goodbye and strode out of the room.

"Stupid cow."

"Ash, why is Misty at your home?" Dawn asked, still gaping at the spot where she'd stood just seconds ago.

"She's not," he answered, as if it explained everything.

"But—"

"I'm in Cerulean City," he added, but didn't seem to be inclined to say anything else.

"_Why_?" she cried, faintly feeling a migraine approaching.

"Oh, haven't I told you?" He looked surprised. "The gym blew up. I was here on a visit when it happened. Team Rocket tried to steal Pikachu and their robot, well, kind of exploded. Now I'm here to help."

"_Kind of_?"


	5. Chapter 5

In November of the same year, Dawn came and visited Paul and Reggie again.

"Go away," the former suggested, after he'd opened the door.

"Don't you think it's awfully impolite not to ask me in when it's this cold outside?"

Paul scowled. "No," he barked and was about to shut the door, when Reggie suddenly emerged from behind him, wearing a disturbingly cheerful smile, and said, "_Why_, if it isn't Dawn! Come right in!"

Paul boiled.

"I hope you evaporate," he told her, while Reggie made hot chocolate in the kitchen, and was promptly thrown out into the garden. About half an hour later, he was allowed back in and instantly ordered to go and buy ingredients for dinner with Dawn.

Too cold and tired to protest, he obeyed.

* * *

"Am I really that obnoxious?" she asked, while weighing some tomatoes.

"Yes," he answered, automatically, and eyed the various kinds of vegetables displayed before him with disinterest.

"You're supposed to say no, you know," she said, half question, half statement, and put the plastic bag with the tomatoes in the cart. She felt like she was talking to a psyduck. Although, as an afterthought, that was probably more effective than this.

"And I care because … ?" He still didn't look at her, which began to drive her even madder than his actual replies.

"If you continue being this uncooperative with me," she huffed. "I'll tell Reggie and then you can sleep outside tonight and think about what you've done."

"Sometimes my life is indescribably unfair."

Jerkily, Dawn directed the cart to the freezer chests. "Quit being such a giant baby and fetch me some tabasco sauce."

"You're acting like one yourself," he remarked and then abruptly stopped in his tracks. "Wait, tabasco—"

"SEXUAL HARRASSMENT," Dawn exploded. "I AM NOT A BOY."

For a moment, all Paul could do was gape. Then he debated whether he should

a) ignore her.

b) play along.

c) punch her in the face.

d) make a run for it.

Silly as he unfortunately was, he picked option b). (And as everyone but him knows, everything ends with option b).)

"What," he snarled menacingly, soaking up pretty much the entire rest of his willpower in the process. "Are you doing there, idiot girl?"

"LEAVE ME ALONE WITH YOUR PSEUDO-KINKY NICKNAMES, YOU CREEP," she seethed. "I'VE HAD IT UP TO HERE WITH YOUR OBSCENITIES."

He had nothing, absolutely nothing, adequate to oppose this. His brain was the perfect carbon copy of a completely empty sheet of paper.

"Security to aisle eight," the speakers started blaring, as Dawn went berserk on a shelf with preserved food. "I repeat, security to aisle eight."

Discreetly, Paul began his withdrawal, silently praying no-one would notice she was with him. Naturally, about three fourths of the tins managed to hit his head.

* * *

Dawn considered the fact that the manager of the supermarket merely decided to kick them out instead of firing restraining orders on them something marvellous. Thus, on their way home, without having bought anything at all, she was humming away one tune after another.

Paul felt as if he had just been killed and immediately resurrected simply to suffer the consequences. And even though most of his brain was definitely set on homicidal fury, another almost equally big part just wanted to break into a violent fit of laughter, which he had, ominously, no proper reason for.

He concluded that his brother's and/or maybe this girl's insanity must be rubbing off on him and, with faint horror, realised that he didn't really care.


	6. Chapter 6

"Can't you go home already?"

"You've been asking me this one day after another for almost three weeks now. Don't you ever grow tired of it?"

Paul felt the sudden need to strangle her, but managed to suppress it for the moment. With bleak eyes, he turned to watch the snowflakes dance and fall and imagined to be one of them; just floating through the air without any troubles, without any worries, without any Dawns.

"C'mon, don't be so dramatic about it," she said, busily flipping another page of her _Weekly Co-ordinator Magazine_.

Paul decided to ignore this. "You're always avoiding answering my questions," he began, sounding more serious than the situation deserved. "What are you hiding?"

"Nothing?" she offered.

"Well, if you're bored at home," he reasoned. "Then go annoy someone else. You have tons of friends you could visit."

"I could," she said, not looking at him. "If I had the money, that is."

He sent her a funny look.

"It's true," she insisted and intently studied an advertisement for some sort of foot massaging device for beedrill, which was kind of weird, since, as far as she remembered, beedrill didn't have any feet. "Mom's renovating the house so there's not much left for me at the moment."

"Hn." He crossed his arms over his chest, staring yearningly out of the window, and seemed just a little bit upset.

"Hey, do you happen to know whether beedrill have actual feet?"


	7. Chapter 7

She left three days before Christmas.

It was, all things considered, not her smartest idea, regarding the fact that she hadn't bought any presents yet and Veilstone was probably the best place to go Christmas shopping, but Dawn had the feeling it was better this way.

This city, this life wasn't hers. Neither were the people and it's common sense that every fun has to come to an end sooner or later.

She didn't look at her departure with sorrow or regret, but with a warm feeling beneath her chest, and took all the good memories with her as a keepsake.

* * *

"Don't you dare come back next year," he warned, scowling fiercely, as she packed her things.

"I won't," she assured him, smiled—

("For I promise nothing and that I will keep.")

and she said this with so much force, he began to wonder just when she had become such a dreary grown-up.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes:** Feedback very much appreciated.

In the next year Dawn decided it was time for her to be brave and finally go on a journey of her own. She chose Kanto as her target.

* * *

"Hey, Dawn, what's up with you lately?" He looked quite concerned through the slightly flickering screen and it made her feel like trash.

"What?" she laughed very high pitched and probably sounded hysterical. "No, I'm not! You must be imagining things."

"Dawn," he pressed, firmer than she expected. "You've lost every single contest so far. There's definitely something wrong."

"Yeah," she agreed. "With you."

Brock made an offended noise.

"Don't worry," she said. "I'm fine."

She didn't even convince herself.

* * *

One month later Reggie called. Dawn wasn't really sure how he had managed to find out in which city or pokémon center she was staying at.

"Hi, Dawn," he greeted, friendly as ever. "I saw you in your contest in Saffron. You were great."

It was such an open, blatant lie she didn't know whether she should feel insulted or plainly burst into tears.

"Thanks," she said and went for neither of the above. "May I ask why you're calling?"

Reggie smiled. "I just wanted to tell you," he explained, calmly, as nausea began to splash up her throat. "That you should come and visit us again when you're back home. We would be delighted."

* * *

Being alone now brought two matters along that weighed her down like nothing had before. The first was that she missed the fun she'd had when she had still been travelling with Ash and Brock. The second was that she had used the two brothers as a replacement for those happy times and the apparent fact that they knew but didn't seem to mind.


	9. Chapter 9

Her mother did nothing but welcome her home, when Dawn returned only one week after Reggie's call.

They didn't talk about her miserable contests or the hour she'd spent crying on the bathroom floor immediately after her arrival. Those were trivial things and overall unimportant.

What truly mattered at the moment was Paul. Who currently stood on her doorstep, completely soaked through from the rain outside.

Dawn rubbed her eyes, thinking that maybe he was just some sort of hallucination and would eventually disappear when she ignored him.

"I am not a Fata Morgana," he said and, unsurprisingly, she didn't believe him.

"Look." Paul resisted the urge to bang his head against a wall, since it would only make his situation worse, although, he had to admit, it was more than just a bit tempting. "I'm not in the mood for this right now."

"Do you have any means of identification?"

And much grinding of teeth ensued.

"Why are you here?" she asked finally.

His features softened—something no-one normally tended to see from him. Ever. "You didn't come."

"Yeah, I guess I forgot. Sorry."

"No," he corrected; perfected. His voice sounded almost as hollow as his eyes looked. "I'm sorry."

And then he left. And then she wondered if the windows were closed.


	10. Chapter 10

**Special thanks to:** Suzie, you background information whore, for completely ruining my courage for this story. I love you, girl. So, as a gift to thank you I'll write you a fic full of delicious background information. :)

It was July now, hot and unforgiving July, and the crickets were chirping.

Dawn lay in the grass, not far away from the house, in the shadow of a large oak tree. Her mother Johanna sat in a white rocker on the veranda and stroked her glameow lovingly.

And Dawn wondered just what the heck she was doing here.

* * *

"Mom," she said in the evening, while her mother cooked dinner. "_Mom._"

"Yes, dear," Johanna answered and turned a croquette accomplishedly. "What is it?"

"Mom, I'm leaving," Dawn said, and waited. Silence. "I don't know if I'll come back."

Johanna flipped the croquettes. "I see," she said and really sounded like she did. "Just don't make me worry."

And the crickets kept on chirping.


	11. Chapter 11

Two days later, Dawn once again found herself on of Paul's doorstep.

"Hey, Paul, since you—"

"Leave," he ordered. Dawn was indignant.

"You're so rude," she said, pouting well-directed.

"I'm serious," he said, ignoring it.

"Well, I'm sorry," she then said and, to her credit, she sounded it.

His eyes squinted, hardly noticeably, and darkened. "Don't be," he ordered again, turned on his heel and went away. Without closing the door behind him.

* * *

"He's really matured within the last year," Reggie told her, when he let her in, and smiled, predictably, but. It was a bitter one.

The door closed. "You, too, Dawn."

* * *

"Paul," she called and knocked. "Paul!" She knocked again, this time more fiercely. "Oh, Paul, come _on_!"

"Go away," he proposed.

Then she released Mamoswine out of his pokéball and commanded him to ram the door open. He destroyed the whole wall.

Behind the ruins of his room, Paul was crouched down into a small huddle. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING, YOU LITTLE BITCH?" he hollered, as Dawn called back Mamoswine, looking only slightly sheepish.

"If I'm the bitch," she growled. "Then what are you? You—you stupid jackass excuse of a man!"

Paul did what he did best: he glared.

"I hope you get eaten by a flygon—_mmmppff_!"

He was kissing her. This was unexpected.

After about five seconds he let go, looking utterly mortified with himself. Dawn stared. Not in awe, because, truth be told, it hadn't been all that great—just two mouths violently pressed together—but in plain astonishment.

"Seriously," he mumbled and kicked the remnants of what used to be a doorknob. "Just shut up, will you."

"I," Dawn panted, although she didn't know why. She didn't know much of anything these days. "I haven't said anything."

"Be quiet." And she smiled.

FIN.

Thanks to everyone who has stuck with me till the end. You guys rock my nonexistent socks.


End file.
